


Time After Time

by Signe (oxoniensis)



Category: True Love (TV)
Genre: F/F, Future Fic, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 07:56:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/607574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxoniensis/pseuds/Signe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They have all the time in the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time After Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amyfortuna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/gifts).



> Thanks to Lix for the super-fast beta!

  
The tide is going out. It's left a line of foam and seaweed, curving along the beach. Holly jumps over the tidemark from the soft dry sand, that kept sliding away under her feet as she walked on it, and onto the newly exposed sand. It's still draining, wet and smooth without a mark on it.

Her trainers leave prints, show where she skirts the edge of the water then dashes back up the beach when a wave comes in further than she expects. She works out the pattern after a while, which waves will be strongest and make it furthest. She walks to the far end of the beach, where the rocks tumble down into the sea and block the way, and then starts back.

The beach is almost empty, just a woman walking a dog in the distance and a pile of clothes that must belong to the two intrepid people in the water. There's a National Trust car park not far from the beach, the other side of the sand dunes, but it isn't the school holidays proper yet, and it looks like most people just park there and hike along the coastal path.

Holly got here this morning. Too early to book in, really, but Marnie at the B&B had emailed her and said to arrive whatever time she wanted, and if her room wasn't ready, she could leave her bag anyway. So that's what Holly's done. She hasn't seen the room yet. She doesn't know if she did the right thing with it, booking a double room. She had the choice, a double or a twin, and she'd ummed and ahedfor a bit, not sure what to do. She'd gone for the double in the end though, because it's what she wanted and she didn't want it to look like she didn't want it.

She follows her own footprints in the opposite direction. She tries not to look at her watch, and she can't guess the time by the sun because of the cloud cover. She doesn't know if she wants the time to go quicker or slower, or if she wants it to stop altogether, or if she wants to fast-forward to tomorrow. She's scared, she knows that much. Terrified because she's been waiting two years for this day, imagining how it might go, and now she's imagining herself still standing here on her own when the sun sets. She won't leave until it gets dark, she couldn't. Just in case.

There's a light breeze, churning up the waves. Holly stands and looks out them, lost in all her ifs and maybes. Maybe she's not coming. If she does, maybe everything will have changed. If—

"Guess who?"

Holly startles at cold hands covering her eyes. "I nearly jumped out of my skin," she gasps, not moving away from the touch.

"You haven't guessed yet."

"Well, the only person I know here is Marnie, who runs the B&B up the road," Holly says, not sure her heart has ever beat so fast as it is right now. "So—I'm guessing you're Marnie."

"Wrong." The hands trail down her face, a soft embrace of a touch, and Holly turns around.

She tries to say something, but it's been so long, and she was so bloody scared standing there, and now Karen's here and Holly's throat is tightening up and—and she's just losing it. "God, Karen, I just—" she manages to get out, and then she's in Karen's arms and she's sobbing.

"I missed you so much," Karen says, her voice breaking on the words. She sniffs.

"Wow, we're a pair of idiots," Holly says eventually, pulling back enough that she can see Karen but not too far because she doesn't want to let go. Can't let go. "Look at us, all tears and snot."

"I've got a ton of Kleenex in my pocket," Karen says, fishing around in her jacket. "Thought I might need them. You know. If you weren't—"

Holly stops the words with a finger on Karen's lips. "Don't say it. It was never going to happen. I've been counting down to this moment. I promised you I'd be here." They'd sworn to each other.

"Don't make me go back," Karen had begged, and it had nearly broken Holly's heart.

"You have to," she'd said. "But when you've finished your A levels—" That's when they'd agreed. A time, a date, a place. This beach, the one in Karen's painting.

"Bet you were wondering if I'd come, though, weren't you?" Karen says. She must see the answer on Holly's face. "There hasn't been anyone else. Not for a moment. I've never stopped loving you," she says, and her voice is so full of yearning, so desperate for Holly to believe her, to trust that this is it for both of them, true love, never ending, that Holly just can't doubt any more.

Holly takes the offered Kleenex and wipes her face. "I must look a mess," she says.

"You look beautiful," Karen says.

"So do you. So beautiful." Holly can't take her eyes of Karen. "Even more beautiful than I remembered."

*

"I was scared I was doing the wrong thing, getting a double room," Holly says when they've booked in and settled into their room. "I didn't want to assume."

"I want to go to bed with you now," Karen says, hands on Holly's hips, slowly walking her the few steps back to the bed. "Is that assuming too much?"

"It's very forward of you," Holly teases, picking at the buttons on Karen's shirt.

"I'm very forward. I think it's part of my charm," Karen says. She giggles, and that sets Holly off, and before Holly's got two buttons undone, they're tumbling together in a heap on the bed.

They can't stop laughing as they undress, trying to help but just getting in each other's way. "Tug these off for me," Holly demands, sticking her legs out, her jeans halfway down her thighs.

"They're wet," Karen notices, getting up and yanking them hard enough to pull Holly down the bed.

"A wave got me," Holly says, wriggling back up the bed, leaving her jeans in a heap on the floor. She'd barely noticed her wet feet at the time, too distracted worrying about Karen.

She kneels up on the bed and reaches for Karen. "Did I say you were beautiful before?" She doesn't wait for an answer. There's no need. "You're even more beautiful now," she says, tracing the curve of Karen's neck, over the arc of her collarbone to the soft swell of her tits.

She's shaking. They're both shaking. It's crazy, they've done this before, but it feels like the first time, and Holly doesn't know if she wants to laugh or cry or what. Her hair keeps falling in her face, but she can't move it out of the way because she needs both hands on Karen. She can't stop touching her, nothing is going to tear them apart again. "Nothing," she whispers.

"Hey," Karen says, kissing her, sharp and needy, pushing her back so they're lying together, skin to skin, legs tangled. They trade kisses, slower and slower until they're barely moving, sleepy kisses, touching and tasting. Warm and quiet.

It's peaceful, this. But—

"I want—I want us to fuck," she whispers in Karen's ear.

Karen gives a hot little gasp. "Yeah," she says, and slides her hand down Holly's hip, between her legs. Holly's wet already, has been for ages, aching for this even while she revelled in the simplicity of sharing kisses; she arches up into the touch.

"Oh, god, yeah," she mutters, shuddering, pulling in long drags of air and then forgetting to breathe. Karen murmurs her pleasure, circling her finger around Karen's clit, her other hand flat on Holly's stomach.

"This is how I'd get myself off without you," she says. "I'd pretend it was your fingers in me."

"You won't have to pretend any more," Holly promises, gasping each word out as Karen gets her to the brink. So close.

Holly closes her eyes and comes.

Later, brushing away stray damp strands of hair sticking to Karen's face, she says it. The important words, that she can't leave unsaid any longer. "I love you. Forever. You and me."

Karen cuddles in tighter, and pulls the quilt up over them. "You and me, forever," she says. "That's a promise."

They fall asleep like that, but it doesn't matter, because they have tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. They have all the time in the world.

**Author's Note:**

>  _If you fall I will catch you—I'll be waiting_  
>  _Time after time_  
>  \- Time After Time ~ Cyndi Lauper


End file.
